Jagerr

In your collective opinions is the Buckler of the Howler still the best off-hand option for the ranger? Are there other options out there that i am not aware of? I know there are other not as effective options such as the voracious shield of striking ect. This came up in conversation last night and i found it amusing that to my knowledge the best offhand weapon for a ranger is a T7 drop of a pretty easy mob.

For reference here is the shield:

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TheRuin3r

Hey bro - was thinking about doing a post about it myself ....
Currently my rngr crit is in the shitter so if i am in a group with a good-great DPS mod i might switch to the megalodon shield ...


But i was thinking - for the people who have stats enough to get other nifty shit in their main/offhand ... what about using lifespike and BAoV


wouldnt the procs from melee weaps on our melee CA's creat a bit more utility (lifespike) and the axe proc go off with the same CA's... would this be a comparable switch?

NEED INFO FROM A NUMBER CRUNCHER on DPS / other utility for other non-howler options


any ideas? atm all i have is trak tooth and Howler with Voracious shield in my bags

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Safana

Personally I use:
No DPS buffer in Grp -> Buckler
With DPS buffer in Grp (or when focus is up you might switch) -> Sebilite Croaking Dirk (+ Oilstone) - Poison is around 6-7%, so you get 0,6-0,7% more DPS from it.

You also can use the lifespike for the extra 2rda (my last calc on 1rda was ~20DPS for me) I wont count on melee procs going off the melee CAs. I tested once with the Incandescent Blade but it was rather crap.

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Jagerr

Now as i have never gotten a great drop for my main hand i use the seb croaking dirk in my main with the buckler in my off hand. Hopefully i will be able to pick up one of the many main hand weapons that are now available with + dps or + Ranged double attack. Im glad to see i am not the only ranger thinking about this.

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Lodor

I use the axe from druusk in my mainhand and nox noxis in my offhand on my ranger.

The axe proc is insane damage and noxis has that stackable 2% miss debuff and 7dps mod.

Id like to get the 7dps sword from venril and the 7dps shield in VP also.

TheRuin3r

What im picking up @ this point is that our prim / offhand are NOT concrete anymore.
dependent on group make up we can switch to make up for missing stats / combat/ranged modifiers and tack procs onto melee CA's

Pic:

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Lodor

Yeah the axe procs for 1-2k often with 53% spell crit.

Safana

Fact is, you only use that weapons because you dont have Maestros/Buckler... so there are no options for the best combination of main-/offhand... only some options if you don't have the best.

The only option is imho sebilite dagger if you have enough DPS mod (or switch it when focus aim is up) or at least the avatar dagger (i would use this mainhand+oilstone and flame in offhand)

Sure, the procs are doing high damage IF they hit... but how often do melee procs hit? And how much damage to these procs ZW? Nearly nothing compared to the other damage bonuses you get. Flame does around 50-60 DPS for me and sebilite dagger increases poison damage by 10%... thats 10% more of 6% of my DPS thats around 400DPS.. so dagger would add around 40DPS.

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TheRuin3r

true saf - no maestro here. and i dont feel that it's still the hold up on a pedistal - clouds part to make way for the almighty MF. But i reserve the right to say I DONT HAVE IT SO I COULDNT REALLY KNOW -
does it add a Crit-able 75 dmg to every melee CA. ranged CA, and ranged auto?

If it is still the case that maestro and flame are the best - and seemingly that is the case - then i am kind of dissapointed in the itemization. i love all the +crit/ DA etc that they've put on everything but .... why not a VP lvl weap/offhand with ranger stats on it.... just 1

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Safana

On every CA not on autoattack, like the proc says. It's based on spellcrit, noncrit it does 84 for me with 556int solo or 92 with 544int using choker. In raid it does avg ~150dmg hits.

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